Michigan State basketball: Jaden Akins may have hinted at return

It’s been a few weeks since Jaden Akins declared for the NBA draft. For a few weeks, Michigan State basketball fans have been speculating a return to East Lansing for one final season.

That speculation was only turned up a notch — or 10 — on Wednesday night.

With the transfer portal window closing on Thursday and the NBA draft decision window approaching in a few weeks, Akins has to be drawing closer to an official announcement, right?

Did he unofficially hint at one on Wednesday night?

That was the popular rumor as he posted his NIL tweet, sponsored by UWM. Obviously, the writing in the tweet made it seem like he was closing in on a return, but we may not know until the end of May.

“Next season will be an even bigger success. Go Green!”

Looks and sounds great, but this is obviously a sponsored tweet and could be absolutely nothing. I’m choosing to believe it means a little something.

Michigan State basketball needs Jaden Akins to return

Although Michigan State has a number of top players returning like AJ Hoggard (most likely), Tyson Walker, Malik Hall, and Mady Sissoko, the Spartans could use a guy like Akins to really put a bow on top of one of the best starting lineups in college basketball.

With Akins back, Michigan State would immediately become one of the top 2-3 national title favorites.

Tom Izzo needs to make sure that Akins fits the role that NBA scouts want to see from him, however, which could be an interesting development. Maybe the feedback will be that he needs to handle the ball more and create his own shots.

Either way, the Spartans need him back.